Me, Myself, and I  Onyx Rewritten
by legendarytobes
Summary: AU - Fourth Installment in the Crusade 'Verse. A LuthorCorp experiment with black Kryptonite goes wrong, splitting Clark from Kal-El. Clark has to deal with a new "brother" in his life and Kal-El with the fear Chloe and Martha will abandon him.
1. Chapter 1

**1**

Clark woke up and he felt like he'd been beaten up by Tina Greer, Jeremiah, and possibly a monster truck all at once. The last thing he remembered was the cave and being sucked inside by Jor-El. Bolting up as quickly as he could, Clark eyed his surroundings. He expected to find himself on the floor of the Kawatchee caves. Instead, he realized he was lying in the middle of a large and exceptionally comfy bed, one covered in dark silk sheets.

"What the Hell?"

"Clark, um, hey." Chloe said, stepping out from the shadows of a gleaming and ultra modern kitchen. "I think the best thing to do in this situation is to not panic."

"Not panic? Chlo, where are we? Where's my dad? Is he alright?"

She nodded. "He's fine, Clark. He's perfectly healthy."

"So, then, why am I here? Where is here?" Thinking better on everything, Clark lifted up his sheet and double-checked. "And why am I naked?"

Chloe sighed. "Well, I guess you didn't exactly pop back in with clothes, you know?"

"Pop back in? Where have I been? The last thing I remember..." Clark trailed off then. He wasn't about to reveal everything that had happened with him and his biological father to Chloe. He liked her, but he was done telling people his secret. He'd tried that with Pete and it had ended in disaster.

"You remember being pulled into the wall of the Kawatchee caves. You remember the beginning of our rebirth."

Clark gasped as, for lack of a better word, _he _appeared in the middle of the apartment, clutching a pair of worn jeans and a blue t-shirt to his chest. "What the Hell is going on?"

The other him sighed and tossed him his clothes. Clark noticed he had not included boxers, and that made him even more leery about the doppleganger in front of him. "Did I not tell you that he was tiresome, Sull-I-Van?"

Chloe shook her head and laughed. "Kal-El, you don't have to so defensive."

Clark stilled at the mention of his birth name. "I don't understand what's going on."

"Would you understand it better in clothes?" Chloe asked.

He blushed and started to pull his shirt on in superspeed, except he couldn't. He was moving quick for a human, but he wasn't anywhere close to what he could do. It occurred to Clark then that Kal-El had apparated in front of him, that he hadn't been able to follow movements so quick. "What happened?"

"I have not missed you. That much is obvious," "Kal-El" replied, yawning. "Sull-I-Van, at least turn your head for his modesty. It is nothing you have not seen many times before."

"Can't blame _me _for trying," Chloe huffed, turning around.

Clark shoved his jeans on and zipped them up, still beyond confused at Kal-El and Chloe. "Okay, you can turn around and someone can answer my twenty questions."

Kal-El glared back at him and crossed his arms over his chest. "Seriously, Sull-I-Van, do his whines not exhaust you as well?"

Chloe turned around and sat on the foot of the bed. "He's kind of an idiot, but he's my idiot, so I have to love him."

Kal-El's eyes flared red and Clark shuddered. He'd never realized how scary heat vision could be when you were on the other end of it. "Excuse me?"

"Like a friend, yeesh, it's not healthy to be this jealous," Chloe replied, taking Kal-El's hand. "I won't defect to the farmboy version now."

Kal-El's tone was snippy when he answered. "Of course you would not. He is merely ordinary."

"Okay, that hurt a little," Clark snapped and, for some reason, so did seeing Chloe's hand enveloped in Kal-El's. "Can someone please just explain this? I didn't die or anything, did I?"

"No, that term cannot be applied accurately to what has befallen you. However, you have been 'buried' for many months," Kal-El replied. "It is March of 2005."

Clark blinked and felt his heart speed up. "No, it's still May and it's definitely not next year."

"Really delicate there, Kal-El," Chloe replied, sighing. "Clark, you went to the caves and Jor-El did something. Even Kal-El's not sure of the exact procedure but he found a way to separate you from the Kryptonian part of your personality."

"Krypton-i-what?"

Kal-El shook his head. "You cannot prevaricate even now. Sull-I-Van is _my _intended. She has known everything about us for almost a year's time."

Clark gulped and shifted under Chloe's scrutiny. He didn't have his powers right then, maybe he'd never have them back if Kal-El were here as well, but he felt more exposed than he had since that day in Summerholt under the Kryptonite bath. "You know?"

Chloe smiled, although it was that same kind of forced one she wore when assuring Principal Reynolds she'd be more agreeable with her headlines. Reaching out with her other arm, she took his hand. Kal-El's eyes glimmered just the faintest hint of russet. Huh, he was jealous of himself.

Weird.

"Clark, it's okay. I don't care."

"She finds me endlessly entertaining," Kal-El beamed. "And useful in a variety of ways."

Oh God, was Kal-El leering? Kryptonians leered? All Clark had ever really been able to glean from the AI was that it was a soulless, sadistic bastard. Surely all Kryptonians were like that too.

"I completed my training?"

"No, I was indoctrinated with some of my father's beliefs and educated in our planet's history. I have declined to train until I have at least completed a high school education and seen the world which Jor-El intends for me to lead."

"Chlo! He's going to take over the world."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Oh please, it's really unfair of you to be all accusing of the guy who has the same powers you used to. Look, it's been 10 months. Do you see everyone bowing down to Kal-El? Nope. He's done nothing but earn a state science fair title and pick up the sports beat at school."

"I would not say that is all I have done, although my other actions have remained low profile for I have opted for discretion."

"Huh?"

"Kal-El has been patrolling Metropolis and some other large cities, but he's kept everything quiet. No one knows he exists or that there are aliens on Earth."

Clark's eyes grew wide. "As in plural?"

"There is a Martian in New York. I have declined in associating with him at this time," Kal-El replied.

Clark frowned. "What's with the speech?"

"I do not understand."

"He thinks you speak funny," Chloe replied.

Kal-El glowered. "I speak with the proper diction of _your _language. Sull-I-Van has never complained about it."

"Why do you do that?"

"Are you going to question me incessantly. That habit and position has been assumed by Sull-I-Van already."

"Fine," Clark replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "Why don't you just call Chloe by her name?"

"Sull-I-Van is her name. Besides, I prefer it for it seems more Kryptonian."

"And you allow that?"

Chloe glared at him, herself. "It's what he calls me and I don't mind and I'm not allowing anything. That's so sexist!"

"Okay, I seem to be just pissing everyone off right now."

"You have certainly not charmed me," Kal-El replied.

"I...this is so fucked up. So Jor-El split us in two?"

"No, that is not accurate. He brought me forth. The Kryptonian personality has always been a part of you. Jor-El did not feel that you had embraced your destiny enough, so he set me free."

"And you still go to Smallville High?"

Kal-El's eyes narrowed. "It is not proper for the last son of a noble race to have merely an eighth grade education. I am hampered already by having one from Earth."

"Yeah, Earth sucks so much."

Kal-El quirked his head at him and the movement was jerky, like a bird of prey. How did anyone in school not notice the difference between him and the a...Kryptonian? "I love Earth very much and am seeking to protect it. It is an unfortunate fact, however, that its science and math education is beyond lacking."

Clark couldn't really complain there. He'd breezed his way through Calculus back in fifth grade. "I know that. So, Jor-El what? Did he just shove me aside?"

"In a crude manner of speaking. He merely switched the original dynamic. In the beginning, I was aware but you felt me no more than a series of instincts which you could not fully comprehend. For the last year, I have been awake and you have been hidden."

"So I wasn't dead?"

Chloe bit her lip and squeezed his hand harder, much to Kal-El's disapproval. "No, you were just...I guess, sleeping. We were observing this experiment at LuthorCorp and it involved black kryptonite."

"No such color."

"I assure you that there is," Kal-El responded.

"Anyway, the experiment went wrong and it ended up physically splitting you and Kal-El. Based on the lack of speed and that nasty bump on your head, I'm guessing that you're completely human and no more powerful than your average guy."

"So I'm human?" Clark asked, and he couldn't stop the dopey grin spreading across his face.

"That is not something of which to be overwhelmingly proud," Kal-El sneered.

Clark hated him already.

"It's what I've always wanted. I don't...never mind, maybe I do get how something Jor-El created doesn't understand humans."

Kal-El stilled and his shoulders slumped just a hint. Chloe dropped her hand instantly from his. "That was rude."

"What? He stole my body! How is it I'm the bad guy here?"

"I did not steal anything and I am _not _a construct, Clark. I was here before you. If one were keeping track, you have always been the interloper." He shook his head and looked down at Chloe. "You still have your car, do you not?"

"Yeah."

"It is not overwhelmingly comfortable, but I have no interest in speeding you and him to Smallville."

"Where are we now?" Clark asked.

"Metropolis. We keep a penthouse here. Virgil helped with that. I do not milk anything anymore," Kal-El replied defensively. "If you will follow us, we shall take you home."

"Yeah, I know that your parents will be dying to see you," Chloe added.

"Good, I'd love to see them too," he said, standing up and already regretting it. He was sore. Something actually hurt and he missed his powers for just a second. But Kal-El could keep them. He was human. He was just like everybody else, like that time Eric had stolen his powers. The a...Kryptonian before him could stand out now. Clark was going to have everything he'd ever wanted.

So why did it make him tense up to see Kal-El take Chloe's hand and lead her to the elevator?

"Clark," Kal-El said and, now that Clark thought about it, they really didn't sound alike. Kal-El's voice was deeper and far more commanding.

"Yes?"

"You are wrong. I understand a great many things about human nature, although it is not technically my own."

"And?"

"Martha and Jonathan Kent will be more than overjoyed to have _their _son back," he replied, turning his gaze to the elevator buttons. "Now, let us go."


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

Kal-El could feel his knees pressed tightly against the dashboard of Sull-I-Van's ridiculous excuse for an automobile. This was another one of those things he simply could not understand. He had offered Sull-I-Van any car she could have wanted. Virgil would have been more than amenable to giving him a jaguar as part of his stipend, something as red as the idiotic beetle if it were color that mattered so to her. She'd refused. It was as with certain trips he'd offered her or expensive clothes. Sometimes-not often-she would acquiesce and accept them. For the most part, however, she would not allow him to gift her with anything extravagant.

He could make diamonds with a squeeze.

One small car meant nothing to him.

And yet, here he was, still compressed awkwardly between her seat and the glove box. Kal-El sighed, he could be sparing himself all of this if he'd merely sped them all back to Smallville. Of course, that would require him to carry his other half. The thought of being near what had once been his simpering human counterpart, made him ill. Touching him was beyond what Kal-El could physically bear.

The seat he was in jiggled and he groused as a knee "accidentally" caught him in the back.

"Chlo, did we really have to do this. It's 2 hours home!" Clark whined.

Clark whined all the time. Why he was the favored son, Kal-El would never understand.

"Clark, we're twenty minutes from town and you haven't died yet, have you?"

"No, but something's starting to feel really wrong with my legs. Did he do something?"

Kal-El cursed under his breath in Kryptonian, and turned to look at Clark. "What, pray tell, do you think I've done against you."

"See and his eyes don't even look right and I...he...damn it, we sound so stupid."

"_ I _," he replied. "And if you do not like diction. I am merely curious as to your current ailment."

"See Chlo!"

His beloved narrowed her eyes at Clark through the rear view mirror. "What am I supposed to see?"

"He's weird."

She smirked. "Don't make me turn this car around. If you two can't get along..."

"I am mature."

"Sure you are, Kal-El," she said and it was clear she was enjoying this far too much. "We have fifteen minutes to go. You two can make this work. I mean, think of everything you have in common."

"Oh I don't have anything in common with some evil alien dictator Jor-El probably hand raised."

Kal-El let his heat vision flare and enjoyed the way Clark's heart sped up. "I am neither of those things. I have had some training from my father, this I cannot deny, but you know who raised me intimately."

"Mom and dad didn't do shit for you."

"I disagree. I was somewhere for 14 years, was I not?"

Clark gritted his teeth. "Look, I'm normal now. I really don't think there's anything I share in common with you."

"Clark! That was an asshole thing to say," Sull-I-Van said and Kal-El noticed her foot hovering over the brake. She was considering slamming it down hard enough to have Clark bump his head. Kal-El could almost read his intended's thoughts at this point.

Plus, on occasion, it was obvious Sull-I-Van had a Machiavellian streak.

"What! I thought we established it didn't have feelings."

"I have myriad of them at the moment," he replied tersely. "The one I have the most of is joy."

"Why?"

"Because, _Clark _, I assume the sensation you are complaining about are because the position you are sitting in has cut off the circulation to your legs."

"Huh?"

"Oh, Clark, sit behind me. I wasn't even thinking," Sull-I-Van started. "There's way more room behind me."

"It's not that. I'm fine."

Kal-El smirked. "Do your legs 'tickle?' A frustrating sensation moving up and down them, not like Kryptonite but still all over."

"A little."

"Oh, Clark," Sull-I-Van replied. "You let your legs fall asleep."

Clark frowned and scooted behind her. "I didn't...it's never happened before. I thought that happened every time a person rode in a car."

"It does if you stay crammed up and don't move around, yeesh. I just...oh," Sull-I-Van said, trailing off.

"Never done a lot of things before," Clark conceded. "It's not a big deal. I mean, I just am gonna have some weird firsts now."

"Pain, sickness, vomitting. How fortunate you are, Clark Kent."

Sull-I-Van did slam on the brakes there and he hissed as he hit the glove box, making it fold in on itself. At least he could buy her a new car finally. "That's it. I said this back in Metropolis and I meant it. Kal-El, don't needle Clark and Clark don't insult Kal-El. You two don't know each other the way I know you. You're both great guys-"

"Chlo!"

"Sull-I-Van!"

"...but you're both about five years old. Get over it. Clark, Kal-El exists and he's not evil."

"I have said as much," Kal-El huffed.

"And Kal-El, Clark isn't as weak as you want him to be. You both need to treat each other better."

"Come on!"

"I object!"

She glared at both of them and, despite his abilities or, perhaps, because of hers, Kal-El shuddered. "You really don't want to test me and, even if you did, you also really don't want me to tell Martha about this," she finished and it occurred to Kal-El he'd been paying too much attention to his "brother's" pain to realize they'd stopped on the edge of the dirt lane leading to his childhood home.

He gulped at the thought of arriving on Kent Farm with the favored son in tow. It had been a nightmare he'd always known would come. One day, despite everything, he'd lose his place in mother and Sull-I-Van's lives to that simpering fool who had done nothing with their gifts but fear them, who had done little with his life but lust for that awful Lang ceature.

But everyone loved him best.

A soft hand touched his and he felt warmth spread through him, a slight golden light spreading over the back of Sull-I-Van's hand. He felt loved then but wondered if it were an illusion from her power, if she were placating him.

"It's going to be fine, you know."

"Chlo, not to, um, press, but I haven't seen my parents in a year. Can we please just hurry up?"

Sull-I-Van restarted her car, but she kept her hand in his. "It's gonna be fine."

"Of that I have little doubt," he forced himself to say cheerily. Mother would be so relieved and that mattered more than anything, what she wanted. At least Clark would make their mother happy, a trade off for making him miserable.

The tiny beetle lurched to a stop and Kal-El picked himself out of the car first. He did not get cramps or feel the loss of blood flow acutely, but it was far from pleasant to stay confined, even for him. Mother was setting some pies out to cool on the porch sill and saw him.

"Kal-El, I wasn't expecting you today." She frowned at Sull-I-Van's car. "Why didn't you just speed here and oh my god." Her voice hit an octave that made the golden retriever at her feet shudder to hear. Even Kal-El had to refrain from a quick flinch. "Clark."

It cut to see her run, to see her fling her arms around Clark's neck first. He told himself it was just the length of time between them. She'd seen him last week, but it had been almost a year for her without Clark. It didn't have to mean anything.

Not at all.

"Mom, oh mom. I'm so sorry," Clark replied, pulling back from her. "I didn't know."

Mother was stroking Clark's cheek and looking from him to Sull-I-Van. "The Fortress said yes, didn't it?"

"Fortress?" both he and Clark said at the same time and it might have been the first bit of synchronicity between them-fear and confusion. Clark's, because he still feared the alien side of his heritage, and Kal-El's, because he could no longer trust the human side of his.


	3. Chapter 3

**3**

Clark didn't understand the looks passing between his mother and Chloe and this thing beside him. None of this made any sense at all. There was the alien side of himself, standing there, talking, coming into _his _home like it had some right to it. How could they not understand Jor-El or what it had wanted of him.

_"Rule them with strength!"_

There was no room for interpretation there. The ship hadn't been confused. It had been exceedingly clear. Clark had once had a destiny and it had been to use his incredible strength and speed, his alien powers, to take over the world. His mother and Chloe wouldn't be so complacent, smiling and greeting the Kal-El construct if they'd truly understood what the ship had told him or how those months trapped in the cave had left him feeling, those foggy lessons about a planet he'd not really seen since his infancy but had haunted his dreams nevertheless. He'd liked the knowledge; he'd liked seeing Lara, his biological mother, but he'd learned things, things that were like fever dreams now, of war and death and Kryptonian superiority. Lessons this thing must have taken to heart long ago.

"You did what?" Kal-El asked and how could it look so shocked?

"Kal-El, you don't understand," Chloe replied, reaching out for him and Kal-El blurred back so fast that Clark had to catch Chloe to keep her from falling.

"No I think I do completely. You wanted Clark back so the two of you were going to go to the Fortress and use my own technology against me. You were going to bring Clark back!"

"We weren't going around your back, sweetheart," his mom replied.

"You did not inform me of your choices either. How long have you been planning this?"

"Kal-El-"

"How long, Sull-I-Van?"

Chloe straightened herself up and faced him, chin squared. "We've been discussing it since the dream serum fiasco, Martha dreamed about Clark in pain and that's why she asked me."

"Mother," and the thing actually looked sick. Weird. "You asked to replace me?"

His mom started to reach out but stopped as Kal-El shook his head. "I wanted to save my other son. You can't expect me to defend and protect you and not do the same for your brother. I took you home from that field when you could have died. I kept your father from using black K on you. I was afraid Clark was in pain."

"He was buried and Jonathan Kent is not my father."

"You're damn right he's not!" Clark snapped, his fists balled at his sides. "That stupid AI is your creator or whatever and you really don't belong here."

Kal-El's jaw tightened. "I see that I do not. Sull-I-Van, mother, you have the one you wanted back, congratulations." With that the thing was gone.

Simply vanished and Clark realized that must have been how he looked when he used his speed. No, correction, when he _used to _used his speed. It was Kal-El's now. "Good riddance!"

"Clark Kent, you should be ashamed of yourself," his mom said. "Come inside and I'll explain everything before you spend some time in your room enjoying being grounded again."

"What? There's an evil alien overlord in my home, insulting my dad and I'm the one in trouble?"

Chloe smiled politely and walked up to him. "Clark?"

"What?" he asked turning to her.

She grinned wider and then he felt it-the sharp feel of her knee in a place no girl's knee should ever be. Clark collapsed to the ground panting and trying to fight back the pain. "Welcome to the human race, you jerk."

Clark might have blacked out a little and it wasn't because a girl had beaten him up or anything. It was just that had never happened to him before was all. Chloe was so not stronger than he was. He could lift tractors.

Except, he couldn't anymore, not really.

Clark sat up on the sofa and groaned. "Where's Chloe?"

His mother shook her head. "I sent her to The Talon and explained to her cousin Lois before I did it exactly why she was being sent there."

"Huh?"

"Chloe's cousin Lois just finished high school and was looking for a cheap place to live while she attended Central Kansas. I was able to hook her up with modest rent at The Talon. She was on a bit of a girl power trip about quote 'finally not taking crap from Clifford' when I reminded her to please politely keep Chloe on probation. I don't have time to deal with both of you and track down my son with the ability to disappear to China in a blink."

"You can't run to China. There's that whole Pacific Ocean thing," Clark groused.

"Kal-El can fly, Clark."

"No we can't...um, I couldn't."

"No, I don't suppose you could, but you said Jor-El could when he visited and that Kara tried it."

"She was a Jor-El trick, just like this thing."

"Clark, I don't believe in hitting children but I swear if I did, I'd have slapped you just then. As it is, you are in for a world of barn chores tomorrow when your father can watch you."

"What?"

"Kal-El is your brother and he's _my _son too and I won't have you make fun of him any more than I'd let him make fun of you."

"He's something Jor-El made."

She shook her head. "He's very real, and I assure you right now he's incredibly hurt and scared."

Clark snorted and adjusted the ice pack on his lap. "How could he be scared. He's the one with my powers."

His mother frowned. "You sounded bitter."

"I'm not. I just don't like pain. It's not all it's cracked up to be."

"No, I don't suppose it is. This? This has always been Kal-El's greatest nightmare, that you'd come back and Chloe and I would love you more."

"You do love me more!"

She reached out and patted his shin. "No, baby, I love you both the same. I can't explain it. It's just something Chloe and I have come to accept. That there were always two of you somewhere deep inside you and now _both _you and Kal-El are out, like conjoined twins separated."

"It's not the same at all. He's not even human."

"Neither are you. You know better. You don't have your abilities anymore but it doesn't really change the fact that both of you were born on Krypton-"

"That sounds so weird."

"It's a fact. So it's completely unforgivable that you make fun of him for being like you used to be."

"It's not about joking. It's about being realistic. You don't know what the AI wanted me to do. Kal-El is as powerful as I was. He could do anything he wanted."

"And so far he's finished high school, done research for Dr. Swann and helped patrol Metropolis streets at night. He's never hurt anyone. He even helped save the world."

"From what?"

His mother smiled knowingly. "From a witch, but that's a long story, I think. The point is that he's saving people and not killing them. If he were as evil as you think he is, he'd have taken over the world right now. I think you're afraid of Kal-El for a very different reason."

"What's that?"

"The same reason he's afraid of you."

Clark snorted. "He has infinite powers." No, he was not missing them. "He can't be afraid of anything."

"Yes he can. He can be afraid of being replaced."


	4. Chapter 4

**4**

The view from Swann's penthouse was always soothing. Kal-El loved the view of New York. He knew the concrete jungle was nothing like the crystaline spires or the eternal sunset of his homeworld. He just enjoyed the hustle and bustle of millions of bodies, of a city and its atmosphere. He knew that Kandor had brimmed with life like this once. He just couldn't go back to it.

"Kal-El, you could have let me know you were here," Dr. Swann said, his words measured out carefully as his tube took in air.

"I did not feel the need. I had not intended to disturb you," he replied, still staring out at the city, wiping discreetly at his eyes. Dr. Swann didn't need to see that.

"It doesn't disturb me. Kal-El, your mother called."

"Clark Kent's mother called."

"No, I meant that she called for you, Kal-El."

Kal sighed. "She is not my mother. She was trying to bring Clark back."

"She explained that to me. You can't blame her for wanting to see if the Fortress could help Clark. Until he showed back up, it was impossible to know if he were in pain."

"She and Sull-I-Van have what they wanted most back. There shall be no more room for me."

The tube breathed in and out, a drone that lasted too long for Kal-El's ears. "Your mother and Chloe love you very much. They've protected you. They've taken care of you for almost a year. Why would they change now?"

"Clark is back. He is everything they wanted. I am what they put up with."

"I have two daughters. Did you know that, Kal-El?"

"I did not pay much attention to personal lives."

"I didn't think so. I love Patricia and Piper very much. I can love them both equally. Even if sometimes Patricia and I share science together, I can't love one more than the other."

"I was always just a construct, a part of Clark, something Jor-El made."

"You don't believe that and neither do any of us."

"Clark and Jonathan Kent believe it."

"Clark's been awake all of an hour into a world he doesn't understand. Jonathan is-"

"He does not care for me. He fears me, would prefer that I were gone."

"Kal-El-"

"My birth father is dead and has been for years. My adoptive father cannot stand the sight of me. We are not...we are business associates."

"I can't be your father, Kal-El. I respect you and because I do I want you to have a relationship with Jonathan Kent. He is still the man that raise both you and Clark and I know it matters to you what he thinks."

"Despite all I do, he thinks me a monster. Mother and Sull-I-Van lied to me. I've no place to go."

Breathe in, breathe out, that steady drone. "You can stay here tonight."

"If I tarry here, mother will be in the penthouse when I wake."

"Of course."

"She betrayed me."

"She loves you both. I imagine to Clark, newly human, that that is a massive blow. To you, it hurts as badly. Perhaps all you need to do is learn to share, Kal-El. It won't hurt, I promise."

Kal-El sighed and stood up on the railing. "It already has."

And with that he took off into the night.


	5. Chapter 5

**5**

I'm really confused," Clark said and Chloe felt bad for him. From his perspective, he'd just woken up from a long nap to find his world completely changed. She wasn't really the same girl she'd been. He didn't have abilities, and there was a whole other person, a "brother" of his, running around loose in the world with the powers he'd always taken for granted.

"Where do you wanna start?" she asked, looking out over Swann's balcony to the world below. Kal-El had been there four hours before. Swann was back in his office working on calling contacts and planning strategies with Martha. Both she and the other woman were terrified that Kal-El wouldn't come back. Four hours?

It might as well have been four years.

Kal-El could be in Siberia or Patagonia or on the moon for all she knew.

If he felt threatened, he might never come home, but if he didn't want to be found...

Chloe sighed but kept looking at the yellow cabs crawling below. "Clark?"

"Sorry, I just...I can't process any of this. I...why does he call you Sull-I-Van and what does it mean you're intended and why the Hell are you wearing my watch?"

The tone was confusion, except on that last part about the watch.

"You know what the watch means."

"I know enough to know that Kryptonians gave bracelets. Dr. Willowbrook gave me one once. I assume it's still in the loft since it's not on your arm, but we..._ they _gave arm jewelry to the people they were going to marry. A watch isn't exactly a bracelet, but it's clearly his stuff on you."

She nodded and trailed her fingers over it. Would she ever see him again?

"He loves me."

"What?"

She shook her head. "It is possible you know. I might not have the initials 'LL,' but it is possible to love me."

"I didn't say that. I just...I what?"

"Kal-El and you aren't the same person."

"Of course not. I'm not a superalien out to take over the planet!"

"He's not either. He doesn't want to hurt anyone. He goes to school and then he spends his nights patrolling Metropolis, helping old ladies cross streets, literally, and stopping muggings. He's never hurt anyone that I know of."

"He's an _alien _, Chlo. You can't trust Kryptonians. Jor-El, Kara, Kal-El. You cannot trust them."

She finally looked back at him. "Your parents trusted you, when it was your powers in question. They too you home and looked after you and kept you safe all your life. Were they wrong."

Clark sighed and leaned against the railing next to her. "The ship told me to rule humans with strength. I've spent over a year running from a destiny like that. I have...had infinite power. How can you trust anyone like that?"

She snorted. "You're the nicest guy I know, except when you're being an insecure prick with Kal-El."

"Gee, thanks?"

"You know what I mean. You're a good man, Clark."

He laughed bitterly. "I didn't used to be one of those at all and Kal-El isn't. How can you trust one of us...them. Fuck."

"Pronouns will drive you crazy, won't they." She said, turning to him. "Kal-El was right. You do hate the Kryptonian half."

"Kal-El, I can't trust yet. I don't know him."

"He was always part of you."

Clark sighed. "Then I never trusted _me _. Chloe, I've done such horrible things. I stole from banks in Metropolis. I've beaten people up there cause it was fun."

"Kal-El told me about that summer. He said you were high."

"I wanted to be high. I wanted to have the ring on and not give a fuck."

"But you didn't kill, didn't take over Earth, last time I checked."

"I just...Chlo, you don't understand at all. There was this cop."

"Clark?"

"Back in freshman year. He set dad up to go to jail for murder."

"I remember."

"And he came to the farm, saying I had to break into IA for him or he'd keep dad there forever. He knew about my powers...Kal-El's powers now. He was blackmailing me."

"Jesus."

"Exactly and I had him by the lapels of his coat, pressed against a counter and he asked me if I were going to kill him and god, I wanted to."

"What?" She asked and this was not something Kal-El had ever mentioned.

"I wanted to kill a man, Chloe. I've rarely wanted something so much in my life and it would have been so easy. Humans are so fragile. I could have just punched a hole righ through him. I imagined it for a split second, but I let him go cause mom and dad taught me not to be like that. But I punched out a support beam in the kitchen and wanted it to be_his head _."

"My god."

"Yes, so how I can I know that something has my powers out there and I don't know it? I can't trust it. It's so easy to kill and I've wanted to more than once."

"Kal-El's not a thing."

"Aren't we...I mean, isn't he?"

It clicked for her then. That Clark hadn't just been afraid of the power and the tests of his limits that he might just fail. He had hated that alien part of his nature, that part who was now Kal-El.

Mostly.

"No, Clark, god no." She said, placing her hand over his. "Neither of you are things. That's not Kal-El. He's impatient and insecure, sure, but he's sweet and kind and smart. He's a good man and he wants to save the world, not rule it."

"But he...we-"

"You're both good men, Clark. I think you need to understand that and that Martha loves him like a son. You're brothers to her, not one person, but two brothers who each have their own needs. She's missing him and so am I."

"Do you love him?"

"I trust him and I feel for him."

"You sleep with him."

It was an accusation and who the Hell was he to be jealous now, let alone of the man he'd partially been.

"I care for him a great deal. I don't know if I believe in love beyond me and daddy or me and my cousins, Lois and Lucy. It didn't keep Moira from leaving."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I don't know if I can love someone else. They leave. You left. Pete and Lana too. Mom. I care about Kal-El. I miss him, but people say they love each other all the time. It doesn't mean shit."

"If Kal-El says it? If he gave you a bracelet, even if it's just our watch, he means it."

His voice was hollow and she could hear it.

"Are you jealous?"

"Of course not. I love Lana."

That old knife no longer cut.

"Alright, well maybe if he ever comes back from Timbuktu or Siberia...I dunno what I'll do besides smack him and then kiss him silly."

"Good plan," Clark replied and his voice was still so dull.

She eyed him and just wasn't sure.

Had it only been Kal-El who'd loved her? And did it matter now that Clark was pining?

Would she-

Chloe grabbed the watch and pulled it close to her chest. It was going to be a long night.


	6. Chapter 6

**6**

To say he was confused was like say Kal-El was a little strong. Clark didn't understand what the Hell he'd woken up into. He sat quietly in the back of his mom's station wagon, as they drove home from the Metropolis airport. He wasn't moping. Moping was something his parents and Chloe had always teased him over. No, he was just pondering.

That was it.

The alien half of himself was off sulking in the Outback for all they knew. His mother and Chloe were distraught beyond words, and, to make things a million times weirder, Chloe was the True One for Kal-El.

Clark knew damn well what the bracelet gesture meant and how huge a deal it was from Kyla and her people's Naman story. If Kal-El had given Chloe the watch and then offered to give her the bracelet, then he loved her, loved her with a depth and devotions that humans...um, other people, couldn't possibly understand. Had he felt any of that? Was it all Kal-El with such a fierce devotion. Clark sighed and tried not to notice his watch on Chloe's wrist. It hurt somehow, no matter how much he loved Lana, and he couldn't figure out why.

"Clark, honey?" his mom asked. "Are you alright?"

"Fine and I'm not moping."

Chloe nodded. "We didn't say that you were. We just wanted to see if you felt alright. I mean you just were at the wrong end of a dangerous experiment with a radioactive rock. If you feel dizzy, it's not that weird."

He shook his head as they pulled into the apartment complex, Chloe's family lived in. "I feel fine, Chlo. It's like nothing is different. I mean, weaker, yeah, but that makes sense since Kal-El took the strength. Dumber too," he replied, touching his temple. "But I don't feel sick."

"Good. I think we should check with the Luthorcorp doctor. He was in the hospital too. I just wanna make sure this change is stable."

"Stable?" Mom prodded.

"I don't know what would happen. Clark and Kal-El might snap back together or something. Before Clark disappears and wakes up in Egypt or wherever Kal-El went to sulk, we should know. Or if there's melting-"

"Hey! I'm right here."

His mother swallowed hard. "Chloe, I don't like the sound of that at all."

"I don't know anything about the science of how this happened. He started with a green meteor rock heated up. I just want to get another perspective on the science. I'm not gonna tell him that we split identical twins. I just want to know if there's gonna be fall out, Martha."

Clark blinked. "Um, since when do you call mom by her first name?"

"Since Kal-El got loopy on love potion Gatorade. It's been a long year, Clark." She riposted. "Clark, get some rest, I'll be seeing you tomorrow to go to Smallville Medical Center. If we can't find Kal-El and have to wait until he gets home, then we should make sure you two are going to stay healthy."

When she said it like that, Clark wanted to tug on his skin just to make sure it wasn't gonna slough off.

Melting?

Oh boy.

Strong arms were around him and Clark wanted to cry. He didn't, of course, he was beyond that. He had cried last year when it was about the baby he'd killed. Nothing would ever make that pain stop, take away the hatred and sadness over what he'd done and been unable to stop. Once, he would have been a big brother. Two years later, he wasn't even sure how he fit back into his old life.

"Dad, I'm sorry."

His dad squeezed harder and then pulled back. "No, Jor-El and Lindsay tricked you. There's no reason to be sorry. It was all a set up."

Clark nodded and bit back the question that had burned in him for a while. If it was a set-up, why had his father made a convenant with Jor-El in the first place? Why had his family helped betray him. "I know, but I left."

"And you're back now and that's all that matters, isn't it, sweetheart?"

His mom nodded but didn't look completely happy. Clark knew she was happy to see him. He just got the feeling that Kal-El flown off-and it still blew his mind he'd once been capable of that-and him returned was everything that his dad wanted. His mom? She seemed as attached to Kal-El as Chloe was.

"Clark, come help me get a few things settled in the barn. Then we'll have dinner. We can go out, even."

Clark's eyes widened. Given their financial status, going out was always a big deal. "Can we afford that?"

"_ Kal-El _," mom replied, her tone clipped. "Set up an arrangement so that Swann pays for farmhands. Yes, we can afford a lot more lately."

Dad's expression soured, as if he'd had a whiff of a stall before it'd been mucked. "Just walk out with me, Clark."

He nodded and followed his father out to the barn. He was surprised to find that there were no chores for him to do but, instead, that his father sat down on the steps next to him leading up to the loft.

"Dad?"

"Do you think it's gone?"

Clark blinked, confused for a moment. "Huh?"

"It. Kal-El. Do you think it's gone for good?"

Clark hesitated, wondering if that had been how his parents had thought of the both of them when they'd been found in the field, or maybe his father believed still in Jor-El's tricks. Clark wanted to believe Kal-El was a construct, he did, but there were feelings and thoughts he'd had all along that had never quite felt like his. Things about himself that even on reflection, he couldn't explain, like how conflicted he'd always been between Lana and Chloe. He was positive Kal-El was real and actually had emotions, the moment Chloe had explained about the watch and their relationship.

Kal-El was real and he had emotions as Clark had always had.

It didn't mean Clark like the usurper or that Kal-El could be trusted. A lot of people had feelings, didn't make them less likely to inflict a lot of evil on the world.

"I don't think Kal-El could be gone forever. He cares about Chloe a lot, I can tell."

"He claims to love Martha too. Calls her 'mother' all the time. They have lunch two or three times a week."

Clark noted the omission. "You didn't, ah, fall for it?"

"Of course not. If Kal-El comes back, I need to ask you for a favor, Clark, and you can't share this with your mother or with Chloe. They wouldn't understand."

"Understand what?"

"I need you to help me get rid of him."


	7. Chapter 7

**7**

"Clark, I think we need to split up," Chloe said as they entered into the main lobby of Smallville Medical Center.

He blinked back at her as if she'd spoken Russian. "Huh?"

"Hey," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

She sighed. "I didn't really mean the whole melting thing. I was just worried. We do have to make sure that this is a stable change."

"If it's not?"

"Well we can't just wait to see if it is or if it isn't. The thing we really need to do, is make sure that we're prepared for either the best or the worst. If it's not a stable change, we'll get Dr. Swann on it. If it's permanent and safe-and Martha and I both pray it is-then it's good to know and not be left wondering."

"I...how did everything change so much?"

"You ran away and my power activated. It changes a lot. I'm sorry it's all confusing and that Kal-El's here." She sighed and played with the watch on her wrist. "I don't regret him, just that this is going to be hard on both of you."

"That's one way to put it. It really is. I just...there's _me _out here but he's not really me. It could be everything I've always been afraid of. I know I'm not as strong as I want to be. What if he isn't either?"

"Or what if he is?" She said, squeezing his shoulder. "You're both good men."

"Do you trust him?"

"With my life," she said and, after everything with Isobel, she meant it.

"Dad doesn't."

"Jonathan and Kal-El posture back and forth. They don't get along well. I was hoping they'd both come around. Kal-El, deep down, I know he wants to try."

"Dad doesn't."

"Parrot much?"

"I...nothing."

She paused and quirked her head at him. "Did he say something? You seem so quiet since yesterday. I thought the homecoming would be joyous and amazing."

"No, that part was great, mom and dad missed me a lot. It's just that I know that he doesn't like Kal-El. I'm not thrilled to have a brother I didn't ask for and he's pretty immature-"

She laughed. "Imagine that?"

"But I just...nevermind."

"I want to know!"

"It's not important right now. I'm going to be heading straight to the room on the second floor. Lex is in better shape than the doctor. He's still in ICU after a transfusion."

"And sometimes, isn't it good to hack?"

"Point," he replied, heading to the elevator. "I'll be back in ten, okay?"

She nodded and kept herself just barely from frowning. There was something wrong there, something Jonathan had said. She just couldn't figure out what had transpired. Chloe shook her head and walked into the doctor's room. She was surprised to see Lex in full Armani regalia, standing by the window.

"Lex?"

"Chloe. I was just discharged. I wanted to check in on the good doctor, but he's sleeping now. We must have tuckered him out. Do you want me to help show you out? I can even give you a ride to The Talon in my car."

She started to walk to the bed. "I really had something important to ask him."

"About Clark?"

She stilled. Lex had always prodded. When Clark had come back from being "abroad" last summer, he'd been all over the farm, leading a barrage of questions. Chloe wasn't sure how to read that. He'd helped kept her safe over the summer, was certainly not his father, and yet, Kal-El debated on letting him in. One day and one day soon, Kal-El would reveal himself to the world, but he wasn't ready yet and Lex's prodding might force him to out himself earlier than he'd wanted.

It was hard to fool someone as incisive as he was.

"What?"

"Clark was caught in the explosion but he didn't come to the hospital for himself. He rarely does when these things happen and, in Smallville, they happen quite often."

"He wasn't hurt."

"He was in the blast just like I was and I've been in the hospital for two days."

"I guess Clark was lucky."

"Chloe, don't be like that. You've been brusque with me since the summer."

"Or since that serum almost killed me and my cousin."

"An accidental leak. We fixed it. No one was more aggrieved than I was and I tested the cure on myself. You know that."

She nodded. "I know, but things are so different now."

"Because of your summer abroad in France?"

"That and going away for school and just everything. I appreciate everything you did for me this summer but-"

He nodded and, yet, put a hand against her shoulder and walked her out the door. "You are hesitant. I don't think you trust me, Chloe."

"I don't trust anyone, most of the time."

"Mark of a cynic."

"A good reporter," she countered.

"Someone broken," he added, stopping down the hall from the room. "Sometimes I wonder why Clark stays with you. Does it ever bother you that it's because Lana's no longer in Smallville?"

He'd meant it to cut. Chloe looked at her watch again. Kal-El loved her with all that he was. "Not one bit."

Her self assurance must have thrown him. His eyes widened for just an instant and then he nodded. "I see. I have other errands to run, but I'll see you soon, Sullivan. You can bet on that."

"Clark, that doesn't make sense!" she said, leaning back in her chair at The Torch. "I was talking with Lex. He was in his finest and we'd just left the doctor's room."

"The one who flatlined of a sudden aneurysm?"

"Lex wouldn't do that."

"No, I don't think he would. He'd keep a room of us...me...fuck, now you have me doing it. Anyway, he kept a creepy ass shrine to my life up in the mansion, but he's not a killer. Of course, he's not. It doesn't change the fact that after you and he left, the doctor died."

"He was in ICU. It does happen. People lose patients," she finished as she leaned over the keyboard to look at her email.

"Yes, but I just saw him in the hospital room, in _his _room. He was in a blue gown and being really nice about everything. He wouldn't stop apologizing for what had gone wrong. You can't be in two places at once."

Chloe grinned. "If he comes back from like Patagonia, you and Kal-El could." SHe frowned.

"What? I know that face. That's the 'Chloe's thinking' face."

"What if Lex had a twin?"

"All he had was Julian."

"No, if the black K split you from Kal-El, what if it split Lex as well?"

"We're Kryptonian. Or I'm human now but you know what I mean. Why would the black K affect him at all."

"Well last time I checked the green does a number on us mortals. Just a second. I have to access the camera files at SMC and bingo. Look here," she said, pulling up the two surveillance photos. Both were from the same time stamp. One showed Clark talking to Lex in his room and the other showed Chloe talking with "Lex" in the hall outside the doctor's room.

"Whoa."

"Yes, I think someone has some serious explaining to do."

"I don't know why you wanted to visit what's left of the accident site again, guys. It's just a miserable failure."

"You said you were heating the green meteor rocks in order to help the radiation do stuff?" Clark asked and he blushed. Chloe knew Clark was bright, but he had once been much smarter, probably could have gone into the details of the chemistry at its organic level if he'd wanted. Kal-El had that now.

He had so much to adjust to, so much that came with his fondest and oldest wish.

"The frequency. We wanted it to change to try and enhance the immune system of plants. Stronger plants, more wide range of where they can be grown. More food equals less world hunger. We had lofty goals."

"And now a lot of rubble," she added, kicking at some collapsed shelving. "It was a good idea. I am sorry it didn't work."

"You approve more than nightmare bacteria, then?" Lex snarked.

"Guys?"

She glared back at the billionaire. "Yes, I have to say I do. Doesn't make up for everything, but I appreciate the sentiment. But it clearly wasn't stable, hence the massive explosion."

"One could say that."

She hated non answers. "One did say that."

Lex was about to respond when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket and frowned. "Pardon me, I have to take this. I'll be back."

As he stepped out of the room, she turned to Clark. "So what do you think?"

"I think he's lying about something, but I can't figure out what. It could be the split."

"Yes, that definitely crossed my mind. Lex is being more evasive than he normally is."

"Sure, I-"

And then she heard it, something above them cracking. It was all she could do at that moment to ram into Clark's side and push him as far as she could from her. It wasn't far, but it was enough to leave him out of the way as a large ventilation shaft fell onto her.

She coughed and vaguely was aware of Clark calling her name.

"Chlo!"

"Here! Get it off me!" She hollered back. It hurt like crazy and she was pretty sure most of her bones were broken. It certainly felt like knives stabbing her when she took a breath. Taking a deep and painful breath, she closed her eyes and concentrated on healing. The familiar rose light spread over her and it must have been a beacon because soon Clark was peeling everything back from her.

"Chloe?"

"God, I'd like the number of that bus," she groused, coughing out plaster dust as she stood up. "And some money, that was my favorite blazer!"

"We were set up."

She looked up at the ventilation shaft. "How do you know?"

"I just do. The timing, the way we're asking too many questions. I don't have Kal-El's vision, but I bet things have been cut." He shook his head and reached out to touch her cheek. "Are you okay?"

"Fine."

"I...is that part of your ability? I thought you were dead."

"I think I was for a minute," she replied honestly. "Let's just get going, okay. I don't trust Lex not to go after your family. Whatever happened to him, I think the bad half has come out to play."

"Chloe, wait. I'm sorry. I didn't mean for the meteor shower to happen."

"Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like I'm a freak. Now let's get the hell out of here."

Bottom of Form


	8. Chapter 8

**8**

He hadn't gone far. The lights of New York City soothed him. He was currently sitting on the roof of one of the buildings overlooking Time Square. The lights flickered before him and people passed below, small as ants. Occassionally, he enhanced his vision and concentrated on the scenes before him, on families making their way through the big city.

Did he have one of those anymore?

His mother had betrayed him, had sought to send him away and use his own Fortress to do it. Sull-I-Van was a co-conspirator. It was clear that Jonathan had never liked him and now Clark, the favored son, was back. Kal-El did not care much for the human side of himself. Clark was weak, easily influenced by selfish desires like Lana, scared of all they'd been. Kal-El had no illusions and no meglomaniacal intentions. He didn't want to take over the world, just protect it. Clark was so afraid, so hesitant to embrace what they could be, but he was loved and he was the son they'd all wanted.

He'd spent three nights in New York and had no plan yet.

He could not return to Virgil's for the doctor in some misguided parental move would call his, no, would call _Martha Kent _. He didn't dare return to Smallville, not to be officially thrown out by his so-called family. He had nowhere to go. He couldn't even seek out the Fortress for Sull-I-Van controlled it. He sighed heavily and looked up at the stars above him. It was on nights like this that he wished Krypton still existed, that he could feel Lara's arms around him.

Indecision was not becoming of him.

The most logical plan would be to start his world tour alone, to begin patrolling around the Earth in order to learn how best to protect its people. He did not need Sull-I-Van by his side for that. He did not.

Kal-El straightened and prepared to take to the sky. London was as good a place as any to start his sojourn.

It was then he heard a scream.

Mother was in trouble.

He was in Smallville before he knew it.

"Jonathan, oh god, stay with me," mother screamed, holding her jacket to his knee. It was bleeding and as Kal-El landed he could smell the gun powder recently burned. For an instant, his vision was focused on his mother. She could never be anything less, and then he turned to the situation before him.

Lex was standing on the stairs of the loft and had a gun trained on Chloe and Clark and was talking on about being the villain of the story, the Numan to Clark's Segeeth.

"What have you done?" Kal-El rarely had trouble controlling his heat vision, but now it was all he could do to blink back his anger.

Lex's lip curled into a smile. "Hmm, now this I didn't expect in the least. I assumed Clark had been split but it didn't occur to me only one half would get the powers or, frankly, that you could fly. That's a new development."

"I asked you what you thought was going on here."

Lex's smirk broadened and he held up his left hand. Kal-El would have only needed Clark's vision to see the Kryptonite ring on his hand. "I ask the questions."

"You know."

Of course Lex had known. It occurred to Kal-El that if the black Kryptonite had split him from Clark Kent that it had somehow worked a similar transmogrification on Lex who had been standing even closer to the ground zero of the experiment. Whatever mores or decency had held him back were no longer present. Whatever his subconscious had known and not wanted to piece together about them, it was now taking advantage of it.

Lex nodded and started to descend the steps, Kal-El backed up with every move, the tell-tale signs of Kryptonite poisoning starting to filter through his blood. "What are you?"

Clark looked at Kal-El then and shrugged. "Anything. Say anything. I just want to take dad to the hospital."

On this, they both agreed. Jonathan Kent could not die, not for Clark or for Martha's sakes.

"We are Kal-El of Krypton."

"I'm going to have to get you to write that down," Lex sneered looking between the two of them, settling on Clark. "It split the way I thought, didn't it?"

"I don't know," Clark answered and Kal-El could smell him sweat, hear the speeding of his heart. His brother lived in fear of confrontations like this, of admitting to what had been his true nature.

Lex aimed the gun at Clark and cocked it. Chloe moved in front of him. "I thought as much. You don't have any powers this way. Do you, Clark?"

"No."

Lex looked back to him and nodded. "But you. I just saw you land in the barn. You have all of it."

"Yes. We can converse all about this. Put the gun down and let my mother take Jonathan Kent to the hospital. Let Sull-I-Van and my brother go."

He laughed. "Brother is an interesting way to look at it. Do you ever see what I saw?"

"I do not know."

"My other half is locked away in Luthor Manor. He's the weak half, the half Lionel always hated. If I shot Clark right now, would you miss him?"

"We do not always get along, but I do not wish for you to shoot anyone."

"Gee, thanks, Kal-El. Really argue for me," Clark snarked.

"Clark, stop. Lex, please. Jonathan didn't do anything to you," Sull-I-Van added.

Lex inched closer to them and changed his aim from Clark's forehead to Sull-I-Van's chest. "And you, Chloe? What happens if I shot you right now, point blank. I _saw _it. The ceiling fell on top of you and you brushed it off like it was nothing."

"I had some broken bones-like all of them!"

"You and 'Clark' have sat on so many secrets, haven't you? Are you like him? Are you from Krypton as well or just a freak like your mother?"

"Fuck you," Sull-I-Van snapped.

"I suppose I might test it for myself. I know you can heal yourself. Can you heal anyone else?"

Fast for a human, Lex adjusted his aim and released the trigger, directly at Clark's head. Mother and Sull-I-Van screamed and Kal-El moved, faster than he thought possible with all the Kryptonite around. The bullet bit into his back as he shoved Clark and his beloved away.

Kal-El collapsed on his knees.

In the melee, Clark, as vulnerable as any human, surprised Kal-El and Lex both by tackling the other man to the ground and sliding the gun to the far shadows of the barn. Kal-El wished his brother was a bit better at rescuing and had managed to get Lex and the ring away from him. This close, his own healing abilities were not working.

"Is it colder in here?" he asked and he doubled over, cramps ripping into him.

Sull-I-Van was holding him, her hand held to his shoulder. "Breathe, Kal-El, breathe."

It seemed like a sage suggestion as he passed out.

_24 hours later _

The cloth was cool and felt wonderful against his skin.

Kal-El sat up slowly in bed-in the bedroom he and Clark had been raised in-and smiled at his mother. "I have missed the party?"

"You made it in time. Kal-El, Chloe helped to dig the bullet out when she healed you. You didn't have to do that for Clark."

"I do not let anyone die, even if Clark is most annoying."

His mother's voice trembled as she spoke. "You saved his life."

"And it appears that he and Sull-I-Van worked to save mine. I would count this as all of us 'even.'"

"You came back."

"I heard you cry; I would always come to rescue you."

She nodded and pressed the cloth to him again. "I thought you hated me, after everything with the Fortress."

"I am hurt. I always feared you would choose Clark over me if you could. I suppose by taking a bullet for him, I have done the same."

She cupped his chin. "No, baby, we have both of you back and we intend to keep you. Chloe was a wreck and I couldn't sleep the last few days. Please, come back to Metropolis. There was room for both of you before, there can be room for you again."

"I was buried for a decade. This is hardly room."

She nodded, "But now both of you are here and we know it. Please stay. At least stay through graduation and then you and Chloe can go abroad as you planned."

"We shall see. I am not sure how things stand with Sull-I-Van." He frowned. "Where is she?"

"She and Clark untied the other Lex and used the black Kryptonite to join both halves together. Lex is back in the Smallville Medical Center and he doesn't remember a thing."

"I do not believe that. I fear somewhere underneath the surface that part of Lex still knows how to hurt us, I mean, me."

"Lex is mainly recovering. He doesn't seem to remember anything past the explosion. We'll see how things go. I just...yesterday was my worst nightmare. Your father, you, Clark. I can't handle seeing the men I love hurt like that."

"And Jonathan?"

"He's recovering in the SMC as well. He had to have surgery on his knee but he'll be better after rehabilitation. If you hadn't shown up when you had, Clark and your father might be dead."

"I have impeccable timing," he breezed. "Mother, you know how I feel about the title. I cannot call Jonathan 'father' if he will not call me...I cannot call him 'father.'"

She sighed and stroked his bangs. He felt as if he were three again. "Time, Kal-El, you have to give everything time."

"I fear, mother, that there are things that even time cannot heal."


	9. Chapter 9

**9**

Clark sat in the lobby of the hospital. It was weird, the things that he should have been working overtime to filter out. He'd spent six months since his hearing had come online, learning to shut the sounds out. He should have been aware on some level of the receptionist typing, the hum of the soda machine at decibels again to a rock concert speaker. He should be assaulted by the sounds of heartbeats, so many, so close together. The room didn't seem real either. He'd always had a keen sense of smell and hadn't really realized until the split that it was also more than human. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He didn't want to be able to smell the way he did, not at hospital. No disinfectant assailed him, no subtly wrong scents, something that deep down, he knew meant sickness. Everything was pale—sight, sound, and smell-as if he had the world's most overwhelming cold.

He wasn't sure if he was relieved or scared.

"Clark?"

He looked up and forced a smile for Chloe. She and his mom seemed so happy to have him back and it showed now that Kal-El was safe as well. She didn't need to know how disconnected he felt. "Chlo, hey."

"Lex is sleeping now. They'll have him moved to the mansion for his private staff as soon as they can. For what it's worth, I don't think he remembers about you and Kal-El."

Clark laughed. "I wasn't worried about that, about my secret for once. Isn't that weird? It's Kal-El's problem now, isn't it?"

Chloe sat down in the hard plastic chair next to him. Crossing her legs, she leaned closer to him so that their conversation could continue in whispers. "If they knew exactly where Kal-El had come from, I don't think the Men in Black would care that you didn't actively have powers. If Lex is faking it, he could be a danger to you both."

"That's not fair. I'm human."

"You're close enough that no blood test could tell, but you're not truly human. I thought you understood that."

"I don't have powers."

"But you're where Kal-El came from and you weren't born here. You're crippled, Clark, not magically made into something else. I don't think the black Kryptonite could change your species."

Chloe was almost clinical in the way she spoke about him and he hated it. "What would you know about it? I come back and suddenly you're some oracle or something for me…him…whatever. I spent four years trying very hard _not _to tell you about me and suddenly you act like you know more about my life than I do."

She didn't even flinch. She had changed. The Chloe he'd known would have risen to the bait. "I know what I've learned so far from the Fortress. It's cold and analytical but it wants Kal-El to protect the planet, not destroy it. I believe that. If you wanted-"

"If that sentence ends with 'I could talk to the AI about getting your abilities back,' then I don't want to hear it. I have everything I ever wanted."

She nodded and looked down at the peeling laminate at her side. "If you have everything you want, why do you seem so lost?"

"I'm happy!"

"You seem mostly confused and I don't mean about having a 'brother.' If I came back for the Patty Duke Show in my life, I'd be confused too. I meant that you're not acting right. You've been so distracted. Yesterday at the hospital in the elevator it was like you were off on, pardon the expression, another planet."

"You did that on purpose."  
>She shrugged. "What's wrong?"<p>

He sighed and looked down at his hands. Once they could shred steel. Today he'd had a problem getting the right leverage on the pop top of a Coke until Chloe'd offered to help with her nails. "I don't think you'd understand."

"You can try me. I'm still you're friend."

"I don't think we know each other anymore. I'm Clark Kent, normal guy, and you're apparently Chloe Sullivan, consort to future emperor of Earth."

She slapped his cheek and it hurt. "Kal-El isn't like that, don't even joke."

"He'll be something some day. I don't think dictator. Dictators don't take bullets when they could just let the competition die. What he did, knowing how much he's threatened by me, that took a lot of guts."

"I thought so. You're both good men, Clark."

"So you say, but it's like I'm not in this anymore. I'm a spectator to whatever grand, scary destiny the Fortress dreamed up for me. After my whole life spent being scared of my abilities and a year in total terror that I'd really lose control or be Manchurian Candidated into hurting people, I don't have to worry. I had this thing hanging over my head, telling me I could never have what everyone else had and now it's just gone."

"And you have to live your life without an excuse?"

"Huh?" He blinked. "I don't think 'alien from a dead race' is an excuse. It's…it was a fact. You be the last of your kind and see how well-adjusted you are."

"But it made things easier too. If you didn't have friends, if you weren't dating, it wasn't because _you _as a person failed. It's because you weren't like everybody else. Now you don't have any reason to fail."

"I won't fail. I can be a cool guy."

Chloe smiled a little and it was genuine. He felt for an instant like they were back at The Torch. "It's not really about popularity. Not everyone has to be like Whitney Fordman was. I just meant that you could always point to being Kryptonian as the reason your life wasn't what you wanted it to be. If you're not happy with it now or in the future, what will you blame?"

"But I'll be happy because I'm not some fr…" He looked away then, embarrassed he'd almost said such a hateful word to Chloe. He forgot sometimes she wasn't quite human herself.

"Genetic anomally?" she quipped. "I think your logic's flawed. We're unique, you and I."

"Are we?"

She nodded and pressed on. "We've been on both sides of the fence. I know what life was like with powers and without them. You're about to find out what it's like not to have anything else but yourself."

"And?"

"Humans have problems, Clark. I don't know how you never got that. Lex has tons mostly with his father and being megarich even doesn't stop that. Your mom and dad are practically Ozzie and Harriet and they still have tons of problems. They couldn't have children. They had trouble keeping the farm running. Having a child like you and Kal-El-"

"Still weird to pluralize."  
>"Having a 'special needs' kid didn't change the other more mundane problems they had. Life's hard no matter what you are."<p>

"But it has to be easier when you're not the last one. I don't think anyone can understand that. It's crushing, Chlo."

She smiled sadly back up at him. "Kal-El understands. He knows exactly what it's like to be Tigger."

"Huh?"

"The only one," she clarified. "If you two ever got along, not surprisingly, you'd find you have a lot in common."

"I'm glad that's not my life anymore. I don't even miss it."

She narrowed her eyes at him and he squirmed a little under her reporter's focus. "You've been trying to listen for things."

"What?"

"I was watching you as I was filling out a 'Get Well' card from the lobby. You've been quirking your head every so often like Shelby would."

"I do not."

"You do. I don't even think you realize you do it sometimes. You were trying to hear the way you used to. You couldn't talk to Lex-even the evil variety-the other day about chemistry the way you always did. You can be seriously hurt now."  
>"I could be before."<p>

"I mean with a bullet or a car or a germ, Clark."

"Or a well-placed knee? That was a low blow, Chloe."

"I'm not sorry. You were being a jerk."

"Yeah but you just don't do that to a guy!"

"And you saying things like that, about Kal-El being a construct or a trick for Martha, it feels to him like that felt to you. Object lesson. Remember it."

"Doesn't make that right," he pouted. "Maybe things are a little different. I guess I never thought the prodigy stuff would go to, you know? I guess I never realized how attached I could get to my senses, even in just a few months."

Now it was his turn to throw Chloe. "Huh?"

"The hearing. I know it seems like Kal-El and I must have had it forever, but it only started when I went blind. It probably was always gonna come but I think that having a lack of another sense forced it to the surface."

"Wow."

Clark wanted to say her voice was the first thing he'd honed in on, that that had to mean something, but it was far too late now with another man's gift on her wrist, to open up old wounds and could-have-beens. "So, yeah, it's weird that things hurt or I got a leg cramp in your car or that I can't hear people two floors up having a conversation. But I can do the trade off. Chlo, Kal-El and I can bend iron. How can we possibly have a-" he turned away from her, already feeling his cheeks blush.

"Kal-El and I have a relationship, and it's like that and I know you know that by now."

His blush deepened and he still kept focusing on the discolored linoleum below. "I didn't think _I _could. I was so scared of hurting anyone. The heat vision and the strength, maybe Kal-El just has better control. All I could see was a dozen ways to kill a girl like that."

_To kill you. _

She patted his shoulder. "Well now you can have any girl you want! You can go off to Met U-Kal-El got a full ride-you can take his place there and start being anyone you want."

"I don't know who I want to be."

"Well that I don't know if I can help you with. You might formerly have been an all powerful Kryptonian, but you're also eighteen. I don't know if I have fuck all idea what I'll be doing in five years."

"You'll be a top reporter at _The Daily Planet _," he repeated by rote. "You've only been saying that since we were thirteen."

"Except," she replied, holding out the watch on her arm. Truly, it dwarfed her delicate wrist. "I'm Kal-El's intended. Whether I ever can love him back, I'm tied to him. His mission is my mission and it might be more than even the best paper on Earth."

Clark frowned. He knew that they lived together, slept together. He'd seen her hold his body and cry until he healed. "You're not in love with him?"

Did his tone sound too hopeful?

"I care about him. Clark, after my mom left, I honestly don't know if I can love anyone. She broke me and for a second I thought I was well enough to maybe try again-"

"But we broke you," Clark replied and it was odd how fast even he could get used to the idea of Kal-El having been there all along. "Kal-El and I. We did that together. He loved you and I didn't."

_At least I didn't get it in time. _

She nodded. "You felt it too? Kal-El said he was what drove you to me, that underneath what you wanted, he was still there. It's not your fault that you two were so divided but I was fifteen and I didn't know. It hurt so much. I love my dad and Lois and Lucy. I care about everyone else. I can't trust anyone else completely."

"Even me?"

She swiped quickly at her eyes. "Especially you. Look, I promised Kal-El that I'd visit him at the farm. I know Martha is planning a big dinner for the four of us. I should get going. I'll see you tonight."

"Chlo, I'm sorry."

"It's in the past now," she said, trailing her fingers over Kal-El's watch, over the watch that had been his. "I have someone who does care."

Clark couldn't swallow for a long time, couldn't breathe. He wondered if that was how Chloe had felt all those times he'd chosen Lana over her. "I cared."

She nodded and touched his cheek. "You're a good best friend. I'm glad you're back. "  
>"I…thanks, Chlo. I missed you."<p>

"Me too, now go see your dad. I know he won't be out in time for dinner, but maybe you can call in a bit and Martha can make something he likes to sneak in tomorrow."

Clark laughed. "It's still weird to hear you call mom by her first name."

Chloe gathered up her purse and stood. "I have the ability to raise the dead. I live with the alien half of you in a penthouse in Metropolis and you just woke up after a year in stasis and _that's _the weird part?"

"I have a warped definition of weird."

"Damn straight." She laughed, a small tinkling sound that he'd also missed. "I think you'll be okay, you know."

"You do?"

"You have me and your mom and dad. You even have Kal-El, even if you make him five years old. We'll help you adjust to being human."

"Thanks, I think."

He waited for a while before seeing his father. He didn't know what to expect. This last time they'd talked, his dad wanted them to team up to stop Kal-El. Now Clark owed Kal-El his life. Whatever his dad wanted, he couldn't do it. No trick of an evil Fortress would have saved him. Besides, he knew, perhaps had always known somewhere deep down, that Kal-El was a part of him.

It didn't make the guy any less arrogant or annoying.

But it did make him the most bizarre family member Clark could ever have had.

His dad was sitting up when he entered, his leg propped on a large foam pillow. There was some old John Wayne movie up on the television, black and white even. Save for the food, it could be some of the rest his dad seriously needed.

"Hey. You look good!"

Maybe that was too cheerful.

His dad smiled. "Clark, how is Lex?"

"He doesn't remember anything. We're not sure if that's true or a lie since it's not like me and Kal-El recombined. We're gonna keep a watch on him but we do have to be more careful. Chloe and Kal-El have a point. If even his bad half knows about us, then Lex probably knows somewhere deep down. But it's not like I can go up to him and be 'do you believe I'm an invulnerable alien, just checking?' either."

"You sound frustrated."

"I am. Being human is supposed to me I don't have to deal with the secrecy crap anymore. I was really looking forward to no more lying to anyone."

"Son, you're always gonna have to be careful."

He nodded and sat down in the chair besides the bed. "Chloe mentioned the same thing. I just want to feel like every other guy. All this stuff? It's what should concern Kal-El. He's the alien."

His father's expression soured. "He's playing a long game, son."

"Huh?"

"Saving you, keeping his cover. Do you see that?"

Clark blinked. Taking a bullet for him in order to what? Take over the world later. That sounded ludicrous. "Did you never trust me?"

His father turned to him and frowned. "What?"

"Did you never trust me? Kal-El has my abilities and you're ready to get out the Kryptonite pitchfork."

"It's not about that."

"It's not? Kal-El's Kryptonian. He's what I used to be and you're there trying to figure out ways to stop him. Did you want to stop me?"

"No, but he wasn't raised like you. He's not real, Clark. He's a trick."

"A trick who saved my life and yours. I don't like the guy. He's kind of a jerk, but he's not a bad person. Annoying is annoying but it's not a capital crime."

His father clenched his jaw, color starting to come into his cheeks. "Clark, you don't understand. I had a nightmare."

"Everyone seems to have had one of those on the serum that LuthorCorp let loose. Mom dreamed that I was hurt and she had to save me. I wasn't. It was like being asleep, really, but I know she had one. Chloe won't talk about hers. If you saw Kal-El like take over Earth, isn't that just a fear and not reality?"

"Jor-El made it, son."

"I don't know what's going on. I don't know how much control Chloe has now over the AI. I don't know what Kal-El and Chloe are planning and I honestly don't think they do either, but I know mom and I know Chloe. They trust him. It has to mean something."

"He's not like you."

"No, he's not. He's kind of a jerk, like I said, but he's also a part of me and I can't help you. If you want to get rid of him, you're on your own. For mom and Chloe's sakes, out of respect for someone who saved my life, I won't do this."

"What if he takes over the world? What if we have a chance to stop it now?"

The fervor in his father's voice scared Clark. "I know the nightmare was bad, but it wasn't real. Kal-El saving our lives is. I…don't ask me this again."

"Why not?"

"Because," he answered, standing up. "We were once the same guy and I don't want to think about killing a part of me. Dad, just let it go."


	10. Chapter 10

**10**

When she entered in through the kitchen's backdoor, she found Martha finishing up two apple pies. One she knew was for Kal-El who would finish the whole thing off by himself. The other was for the three of them to split. After all, both of Martha's boys loved her cooking and her homemade pies best of all.

"How is he?"

Martha set down her rolling pin and gathered her up in a hug. "He's physically fine. Still a little whoozy but you know how Kryptonians are. They take a licking-"

"And can fly to China in five seconds afterwards, I'm aware," Chloe replied. "I mean, is he okay?"

"I think it's been hard for him. He apologized for running off. I don't think he was ever going to stay away forever. I don't think he could."

Chloe smiled. "I'd kill if he'd tried. He's ours."

Martha nodded and started kneading the dough again. "Yes, he is."

"Is he mad? About the Fortress and us? We only thought about asking it."

"You don't need to convince me. He's Kal-El. He's so scared of being replaced, Chloe. I don't know how to make him understand that even with Clark back, we'd never leave him. The best I could do was say I was sorry and hug him. I want both my boys under one roof."

Chloe blushed. "I don't. I mean, Kal-El can visit but there are certainly things we can do at the penthouse that we can't do here."

"Well, that aside, I want both boys to feel like they belong. They both do. They're my sons. They just need to learn how to deal with the split."

"Yes, that will be so simple. They've spent fifteen years locked together, whoever was the one in charge, and now they're both here. I don't think we're going to be sitting down to the perfect family dinner any time soon. Kal-El's so insecure and Clark's so…"

"Insecure?" Martha asked, arching an eyebrow at her.

She nodded. "They're so alike."

"It's probably why they butt heads. Lois and Lucy are like that. When you're both so stubborn it's what happens. I only saw your cousins together for three days and I could tell they were too enmeshed to really ever not be jealous of the other, you know?"

"Siblings are way too complicated," Chloe affirmed. "I'll go upstairs to check on him. Clark's with Jonathan and he'll be back soon. He just wanted to get in the father-son time."

"Is he okay?"

Chloe considered the question and wasn't sure how best to answer without alarming Martha. "He used to be all powerful and now he's just like everyone else. I think that's a pretty big adjustment to make."

"But he didn't want the power."

"It didn't make him any less impressive. He had all these abilities and now he could get a paper cut just like anyone else. I think that really has to mess with one's self esteem and worldview. He may not have thought he wanted his abilities but I have the worst fear he's going to realize being human's not all he wanted."

"You're biased because you've gotten immunity to sickness now."

"No, I know what it's like to be both and he's never had more than some bruised ribs that time Eric stole his powers. It's going to be very hard for both of them, and Jonathan is _not_making it better."

"Clark's father is thrilled to have him home."

"He could treat Kal-El better."

"It'll take-"

"He's had nine months. The way he treats Kal-El is inexcusable and now that he has his favorite son back? It's just going to get harder."

The older woman sighed and pushed a long strand of graying hair behind her ear. "I thought having Clark back would make it all fit. Both boys safe and we could all be happy."

"I hope so, but I'm not going to hold my breath on it," she finished before starting up the stairs.

Chloe hesitated outside of the doorway. She didn't want to knock, almost, to see him. She'd broken his trust as his counsel by even thinking of trying to use the black K again, by thinking of Clark ahead of him. They'd never gotten the chance even to ask the Fortress and if any possible solution had been dangerous, they never would have, but the intent was there and it was the intent that confirmed Kal-El's fears, at least to him.

"Sull-I-Van, I know that you are there."

"My heartbeat?"

"Always, please open the door and pass through it."

She laughed and came to stand just barely inside the doorframe. "You're so formal."

"Being shot is no reason not to be polite. Also, I must insist that I do not bite. Are you nervous?"

She nodded. "You could say that. I'm really sorry about everything. Martha and I, we never would have done anything to hurt you. We just wanted Clark safe. She had a dream on the serum-"

"So I have heard. That serum is still causing such trouble, even now," he said, sitting up and the covers fell low over his hips. She could see his scar, the ever present mark from the AI and she still hated it. It was slightly red and irritated, probably a lingering effect from the Kryptonite exposure. When he realized she was staring, he looked away. "It does not hurt."

"I didn't ask that yet."

"Sull-I-Van, you cannot heal it. It is merely sore after all I have suffered. It will be more than fine after pie."

Chloe laughed. "I knew you'd find a way to work in asking for dessert right away."

"Naturally," he replied reaching into the drawer in his night stand and pulling out a weathered tin box. It was bent and rusted but Chloe's heart caught in her throat. She knew what was contained inside. "I have to say something."

"Kal-El, please don't ask me if I love you. I can't say it. I thought we went over that after the serum."

He stiffened but still held the box in one large hand. "This is not about what you say. It is about what I need."

She frowned. "You need to hold a bracelet?"

"I need to place this on your wrist. That," he said, gesturing to the frayed leather band of the watch she wore. "Is not adequate. It does not show you how I feel."

"I know how you feel," she replied, crossing the room and slipping under the covers with him. He hesitated and tried to pull away from her touch. Sighing, Chloe let her fingers rest against the puckered skin of his collar bone. "I wish I could heal that for you."

"Your presence does ameliorate things."

She smiled sadly. "Why would any father ever do that?"

"I do not confess to understand the Fortress completely. I carry the symbol of my house as honorably as I can. It is what is asked of me."

Duty.

Kal-El took all of the traditions and expectations of his people so seriously. Some things he could argue with; she had certainly had a few choice words over the months for Jor-El.

"The bracelet means a lot to you, doesn't it?"

He nodded and opened the box. The jewelry there was breathtaking. It was a filigree band with a large diamond-shaped turquoise stone, except, of course, that it was a stone that had never been native to Earth. It was a marriage bracelet, older by far than the town of Smallville. "It does not mean what you think."

"Um, marriage bracelet?"

"No, I do not wish to give it to you because it is customary. I wish to give it to you now because I need you to understand."

"What?"

"The depth of my feelings for you. We take our abilities for granted. You and I believe because we heal as well as we do that we have decades or centuries to work things out."

"Sometimes, yeah."

"I did not die, but I certainly could have and I would have died without giving you the band. I cannot give you the one for my house for it was lost as Krypton is lost, but I want to give you this gift. You do not have to say anything. We have spoken of this and I know you are not ready. I know what Moira and what we have done to you."

She nodded slowly and leaned her chin against his chest. "I want to be."

"But you are not yet and I remind myself that I must accept this, but if something were to happen to either of us, I could not accept that you have never worn my gift. Please, Sull-I-Van. It does not have to be more than it is. I am showing you that I love you and you are showing me that there is hope."

She smiled and held out her arm. "I think I can do that."

Slowly, Kal-El slipped the bracelet on her left wrist. It contrasted with the large wrist watch on her right but both were equally hers. "I think that is most agreeable."

She nodded. "Were you there when Clark put on my corsage for the Spring Formal? Did that mean something to you?"

"I knew that he did not understand the gesture, that you could not. It did not thrill me any less," he answered, leaning down to kiss her. "Thank you."

"If I were a better fiancée, then I'd be able to actually say the l-word."

"I have time."

"What about 'we don't know what will happen tomorrow?'"

"We have some time, but I do not wish to have regrets, Sull-I-Van. I cannot dictate or understand what would leave you feeling regretful but for my peace of mind, I must see that on your wrist. Thank you for doing this for me."

She leaned up to kiss him again but paused before she did it. "I would always be your counsel, Kal-El."

"Then the Earth is most fortunate," he replied, pulling the covers up over them both as she kissed him.


	11. Chapter 11

**11**

It was odd.

How small a word for this whole experience. He was a Kryptonian or he had been. He didn't care what Chloe said about muted powers not making him human; he was now. The point was in a life that had included rocks that could change his personality, aliens who could fly—or at least girls named Kara who'd been made to seem that way—and a crazy computer, this was the weirdest thing that had ever happened to him.

He stood on the steps to the loft looking up at himself.

Kal-El looked just like him and why wouldn't he? Yeah he had this creepy thing for black jeans and black silk shirts and, yeah, his hair was longer than Clark usually kept his, but they were twins. The only real difference between them were the cold blue eyes that stared back at him.

"Clark? Why are you not with mother and Sull-I-Van?"

"They wanted to see how you were. After pie you sort of took off to mope."

"I do not mope," he replied and it awed Clark to watch him. There was regality to his posture, a noble bearing that Clark had lacked. He'd always felt awkward in his body, unused to every new change. Kal-El held himself like the leader he had been born to be.

What kind of leader was the big question lingering between them all.

"Maybe you do."

"I do not, but I do become tired of pests."

Clark nodded. "I don't really wanna be out here either."

"You are free to murder the English language somewhere else, _Clark _." Kal-El chuckled as if his name was the biggest joke in the world.

"I don't get you."

"You do not?"

"Yeah," Clark said, starting to pace. "I really don't get you. Mom and Chloe think you're amazing."

That caused Kal-El to quirk his head. It was a jerky movement, as if a raptor or bird of prey and made it. Had Clark ever seemed that alien? "They do?"

"You know they do. It's 'don't make Kal-El feel bad' that and 'check on your brother' this. They think you're a great guy and, hey, not shot so I think you're at least honorable, but you treat me like crap. The little digs, the laughing about how I'm just human. Newsflash-I _want _to be this way!"

"You want to hide. I do not find that honorable or worthy of us."

"I am not hiding. You're the one sitting in the loft, remember?"

Kal-El considered that. "I was contemplating. I thought that after all this time mother and Sull-I-Van would prefer to catch up with you."

"They wanted us all to have coffee. Mom says you like _Pinocchio _. She thought we could watch it. And are you the lamest alien ever or what?"

"I did not spend my time wishing to be anything than what I am."

"You hate me for that? For wanting to fit in?"

"I do not hate you, Clark. I do not like your weaknesses. There is no shame in who we are."

"_ You're _the alien. _I'm _just a guy. Of course there's no shame in being just a guy."

Kal-El opened his mouth to say something but paused, before Clark could ask him what he was waiting for, there was a blur of motion and someone tapping on his shoulder. Clark spun around, forced to face Kal-El eye to eye. "You would believe that, would you not? That the shame you always felt was natural. That is was natural to fear our gifts."

"We had to hide. They'd find us," Clark replied, his voice small. It was the first thing his parents had taught him. Hide, be safe. Don't let anyone know. It was the rule of his life and for the first time in over a decade, he no longer had that worry. There was no strength to temper, no speed to compensate for.

"This I do understand but there is a difference between prudence and shame." Kal-El shook his head. "I should not be surprised. You are your father's son."

Clark swallowed at that. Two days ago, that would have been a compliment, but after his father's request in the barn, Clark wasn't sure he wanted to be just like his dad anymore. "Mom and dad kept us safe."

"They did what they could. There were no instructions for how to raise us, no guidance. They did most admirably for anyone, human or Kryptonian. They kept us safe until now, until I was ready."

"You're going to have a press conference?" Clark's tone was snottier, more defensive than he'd like. Kal-El was implacable. God, Clark wanted to be like that.

"No, I shall wait a bit longer. I need to understand this world, as much of it as I can before I can serve it. I do believe that a tour of it after Sull-I-Van and I graduate will be best. But I am not afraid any longer. I can protect myself and those I care for. It would not have been so had anyone caught us as a child."

"I know," he replied, suddenly feeling cold. "I never wanted to have to lie, to hide. I'm just glad that I don't anymore, that there's nothing special about me."

"There will always be something unique about you, Clark Kent. You merely wish to bury it as you have buried me, but, again, I understand. As wonderful as mother was, as much as I do believe Jonathan tried with you, they could not teach you to hide and, at the same time, teach you not to be ashamed of what were. They chose your safety over your sense of self."

"No they didn't."

Kal-El nodded. "They did what they could, but it was not quite good enough to help you, Clark. I do not know if you would ever accept me as part of you. I suppose we shall never know."

"Guess not."

"So, yes, I pity you and I hate that you could never embrace what we could be, but I do not hate you."

"Well I think you're pretty much an ass."

"An ass to whom you owe your life."

"There is that," Clark groused. Why had he ever tried to be nice to this guy in the first place? He might take a flesh wound in exchange for not having to talk to His Smugness. "Mom must love you a lot."

"Is this your pity? To make me feel better that you are the clear favorite."

"I didn't say that…lately."

"I do not deny it. I know that Sull-I-Van and mother loved you first and, I fear, love you best. You do not have to lie to my face."

"I'm not. She didn't come for me. She could have. Dr. Swann has tons of the black Kryptonite. I could have been out a year ago, almost, but she was that scared of losing you. Chloe too."

"They were going to ask the Fortress how to rescue you. I would not count them out yet."

He nodded and sat down on the steps, not caring if Kal-El followed his move or not. "They're my family."

"I was aware."

"Mom's still my mom, you know."

"I am painfully aware of that."

"Chloe's my best friend, not yours, and I-"

"You love her." It was not a taunt. The statement that issued from Kal-El's lips was barely a whisper.

Clark looked up at him, shocked. "I don't. She's my friend. We're friends."

Kal shook his head but stayed standing as straight and tall as he could, posture rigid. "You cannot lie to yourself, Clark. "You may lust for Lana, even now, but you love Sull-I-Van. You are only now realizing it."

"We're friends. I can't wait to call Lana in Paris, thank you very much, and stop trying to get into my head. It's closed for business. You have my memories. It fucking doesn't make you me."

"I suppose I was wrong then," his "brother" replied. "But I had thought-"

"You thought wrong."

"Wrongly," Kal-El corrected by rote. "At either rate, I feel like an interloper."

"You are."

"To me, you know, I was here first."

"I don't wanna share," and even Clark knew he sounded like a five year old.

"Nor do I but both mother and Sull-I-Van seem to insist we must. I shall have to learn with the knowledge you were here first and are the favored son and you shall have to learn to live, knowing that I was always a part of you, that you started life _alien _, as you so prefer to put it."

"Joy."

"I am not thrilled by this development either, but for mother and Sull-I-Van-"

"I know. They have me whipped too. I'd do anything for them."

"I as well. Then we have an accord. I am not requesting that you stop insulting me for I enjoy my own slights on you as well."

"Huh?"

Kal-El nodded. "I have your intellect, forgive me. We only have to play nice around mother and Sull-I-Van. I do not expect us to become best friends."

"Good, cause we're not."

"I do not wish for that to happen."

"Fine then."

"Right," Kal-El replied, finally leaning against the railing. "We are adults; we can do what is best for their sakes."

"I think so." Clark frowned. "What about dad?"

"He is not my father. I feel no filial obligation to him. You may take all his attention. He has certainly never shown me any."

There was a sadness there. Clark wondered if Kal-El knew how vulnerable he actually was. "I have to talk to you."

"We are conversing."

"No, I mean, you need to try harder. I get it. You have this whole sneering alien in charge, full of himself thing going on."

"Why Clark Kent, you sweet talk so well."

"I mean it. You might be defensive-that's Chloe's theory at least-but you're also a jerk deliberately too. You need to work things out with dad. I know it's hard. Hell, I can't even believe I'm saying this, I'll insist we do that stupid fishing thing the three of us or a Sharks game or something, if you need a buffer."

Kal-El frowned at him. "Why would you offer to do this for me? You have Jonathan Kent's undivided attention."

_Because I'm scared. _

But he couldn't say that, couldn't tell Kal-El that, for the first time since his father had fallen off the barn roof, that Clark was scared of him. Something wasn't right, and he could tell if Kal-El and dad couldn't work it out and soon, it would only get worse. "I know that he had a dream about you, like mom did about me."

"I should have suspected as much."

"It's a fear. Those dreams weren't true. I wasn't in pain like mom thought and I really don't think you're…well, I…"

"That I'm not a monster as he thinks."

"I was gonna opt for Jor-El trick. The other way sounds mean."

"Perhaps it is; it makes the sentiment no less true."

"It was a nightmare; you just have to give him reason to get over it. I'd say the nick of time rescue and saving me from a bullet are a great start to build on. Kal-El, I need you to believe me. You have to try harder."

Blue eyes narrowed at him. "You are holding something back. We were never a good liar."

Still weird. Clark was never gonna get used to talking in plurals about himself even if it were true.

"Just try, for mom's sake, okay?"

"Tell me what you know."

"I have. Hey, it's time to do some Disney and Chloe didn't eat all of her slice. You know we like pie."

"This is a distraction."

"Uh, yeah."

Kal-El considered him. "Alright, but I shall sit next to mother."

"No way! I've been gone for a year. Mom's mine and I'm her favorite, you know."

"No, I am."

"Me."

"Me."

Clark followed his brother out of the barn, grateful that he was keeping to a human pace. He'd distracted Kal-El for now but he didn't know how long he could keep his dad's request hidden. He hoped for long enough.


End file.
